Motorsport Engineering

MSc

Join a live webinar and find out more

Start dates: September 2024 / September 2025

Full time: 12 months

Part time: 24 months

Location: Headington

Department(s): School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Find a course

Expand

Overview

On our postgraduate Motorsport Engineering course, you’ll get the right blend of practical experience and theory to prepare you for a career in motorsport. You will have full access to our specialist automotive labs, which double as your research and learning spaces. 

You’ll also want to get the most out of our facilities, including the High Voltage Energy Storage lab, driving simulator, the Joining Technology Research Centre, and #OxfordMetaverse, our virtual reality space. And you can explore your interests through research groups and extra-curricular activities like Formula Student.

Many Formula One and Formula E teams are near Oxford, in the UK’s motorsport valley. You’ll have unrivalled access to the industry. Speakers will visit and share up to date insight on what’s going on in motorsport. You can apply their experience and expertise in technology, production and management to your projects.

This course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Attend an open day or webinar Ask a question Order a prospectus

Students working on a motorsport car in garage

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Gain practical skills

    Join Oxford Brookes Racing, Formula Student Team - who’ve been the top UK team and won the design award more times than any other UK university. You’ll develop skills in designing, building and racing vehicles. Watch more about how the OBR car is designed.

  • Get industry insights

    This course is taught by Formula One professionals, with a working knowledge of the industry.

  • Speak to recruiters

    Prospective employers visit Oxford Brookes as part of our Industrial Lecture series, letting you explore your career options.

  • Brand new facilities

    All Engineering and Motorsport courses are moving from the Wheatley Campus to brand new, custom designed buildings at our main Headington site. These buildings will open in the 2024/25 academic year. You'll benefit from state-of-the-art facilities and equipment including a VR cave and material science labs, composite lab, autodynamics workshop and wind tunnel, as well as social learning spaces, teaching rooms and cafe space.

  • Great location

    Oxford is home to lots of high-tech businesses, and is located in the heart of the motorsport valley. We also have excellent links with the industry.

  • Accreditation(s)

    This course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for the purpose of meeting the further learning requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer. This course is also accredited by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

    • Engineering Council
    • Institution of Engineering and Technology
    • Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Course details

Course structure

The course features specialist motorsport modules including Advanced Vehicle Dynamics and Aerodynamics. You’ll discover how to design, test and model motorsport vehicles in crash scenarios, create race engineering strategies and learn about motorsport sponsorship and management. 

For your dissertation, you will research an aspect of motorsport engineering that you’re passionate about. And you will hone your project management, planning and research skills in doing so. 

You can work on your own project, collaborating with a research or commercial organisation of your choice. Or you can take on an industry-sponsored project from a company such as AVL. 

White motorsport car

Learning and teaching

Teaching methods include:

  • lectures and seminars to provide a sound theoretical base
  • practical work designed to demonstrate important aspects of theory or systems operation.

We also invite visiting speakers from business and motorsport industry to provide valuable insights to your learning.

Assessment

You will be assessed with individual and group continuous assessment, including:

  • coursework exercises
  • essays
  • presentations
  • laboratory exercises
  • examinations.

Study modules

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

  • Composite Design and Impact Modelling (20 credits)

    This module will give you an understanding of materials, components and their structural behaviour when subjected to medium to high impact events. This includes the design, testing and modelling of motorsport components and vehicles.

  • Advanced Vehicle Aerodynamics (20 credits)

    This module focuses on the problem of how to design vehicle shapes and aerodynamic packages that enhance the race vehicle performance.

  • Lap time Simulation and Race Engineering (20 credits)

    This module looks at advanced race vehicle performance subjects, including laptime simulation, data acquisition, instrumentation and telemetry. You will learn to assess the performance of racing cars, develop strategies to race engineer them and determine their ultimate performance using leading professional laptime simulation software.

  • Engineering Business Management (20 credits)

    This module provides you with an understanding of the management skills and knowledge that are important in engineering industries.

  • Advanced Vehicle Dynamics (20 credits)

    This module will give you a thorough understanding of the relevant theoretical and practical considerations associated with optimising motorsport vehicle performance. You will learn to apply advanced vehicle dynamic analysis techniques such as the derivative method, learn how to optimise suspension using advanced software methods and then verify your solution on our four-post rig.

  • Electric Vehicles (20 credits)

    This module develops comprehensive understanding of electric vehicles with the focus on advanced vehicle propulsion technology. It covers the analysis, modelling, simulation and control of various electric vehicle architectures with the focus on the powertrain and associated electronics.

Final project

Compulsory modules

  • MSc Dissertation (60 credits)

    The Dissertation is an individual project on a topic from motorsport engineering, offering an opportunity to specialise in a particular area of motorsport. In addition to developing high level of expertise in a particular area of motorsport, including use of industry-standard software and/or experimental work, the module will also provide you with research skills, planning techniques, project management. Whilst a wide range of industry-sponsored projects are available (e.g. Dallara, VUHL, Base Performance, McLaren, AVL), students are also able undertake their own projects in the UK and abroad, to work in close co-operation with a research, industrial or commercial organisation.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

The emphasis in our research groups is producing high-quality research for the real world. Our industry focused research includes an award-winning project with Yasa Motors and BMWi development.

Staff have close links with industry through research projects and consultancies. This includes the Dallara single-seater electric racer design project. You can find out more on our department research pages.

The results of the most recent REF (2014) exercise showed that 96% of research in the department is internationally recognised, and 57% was judged to be of world leading quality or internationally excellent. More specifically, 50% of the impact case studies returned were judged to be internationally excellent, and 72% of the research outputs were judged to be internationally excellent or world leading.

Careers

Our graduates are enjoying success working for national and international companies. These include:

  • McLaren Formula One,
  • Red Bull Formula One,
  • Scuderia Ferrari,
  • Mercedes AMG HPP,
  • Williams Advanced Engineering,
  • Xtrac,
  • Triumph Motorbikes,
  • Hyundai World Rally Team.

If you need any help with your career, you can use our careers support system. 

Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£11,350

Home (UK) part time
£5,675

International full time
£20,000

Home (UK) full time
£11,950

Home (UK) part time
£5,975

International full time
£20,800

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£11,350

Home (UK) part time
£5,675

International full time
£20,000

2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£11,950

Home (UK) part time
£5,975

International full time
£20,800

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.